Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from November 2004

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from November 2004

Have fun learning about science!(Sci-Triv Game)
November 5, 2004... SCI-TRIV GAME Have fun learning about science! Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the questions below. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the...

New York--When Meow Mix, Manhattan's hottest new eatery, opened in August, customers lined up in fur and tails.(Who Knew)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NEW YORK -- When Meow Mix, Manhattan's hottest new eatery, opened in August, customers lined up in fur and tails. Most diners went by first names, such as Mae and Simba, and enjoyed a fancy feast of turkey, beef,...

Palm Beach, Fla.--Pumpkin the Chihuahua is suddenly slimmer.(Who Knew)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Pumpkin the Chihuahua is suddenly slimmer. The little dog had become a hog, eating so many cookies and croissants and packing on so many pounds that she had trouble walking and breathing. So...

The exterminator: can old pesticide that is banned in most countries defeat one of the world's worst diseases.(Health/Life)(Cover Story)
November 5, 2004... Few Americans ever give much thought to malaria. That wasn't always so. Malaria once infected--and killed--many people in the United States. During the Civil War, more than a million soldiers fell ill with the disease. By the middle of the...

Pocket rockets: the new tiny motorcycles are hot--but risky on the wrong roads.(Physical)
November 5, 2004... Robbie Wilkey's feet are just inches away from the pavement as he whizzes by at 88 kilometers (55 miles) per hour. As he leans into a sharp turn, his knee pad scrapes against the hot asphalt and keeps him from a low-side wipeout. He rights...

End of days: some say the world will end in fire some say ice. here's what astrobiologists say.(Earth)
November 5, 2004... Ask a group of scientists about next week's weather forecast and you'll get a dozen different answers. But ask them about long-term conditions--say, 7 billion years from now--and their predictions will be much the same: A giant red sun will...

Exercise sends distress signal.(Life)
November 5, 2004... PORTSMOUTH, England -- In 1996, Paula Robson-Ansley was training in hopes of qualifying for the British Olympic rowing squad. Her workout schedule was so taxing, however, that she finally maxed out. "Suddenly, a 5-kilometer run felt like I'd...

Lab makes vampire snacks.(Too Weird)
November 5, 2004... VORONEZH, Russia -- Was Count Dracula ahead of his time? Could his taste for blood become the next food fad? Scientists at a lab in Russia have developed a line of food products made from cow's blood. The products could be on grocery...

Amazon River shifts gravity.(Earth)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2004... AUSTIN, Texas -- The Amazon River basin covers an enormous area: about 5 million square kilometers (1.9 million square miles). The basin is so vast, in fact, that it affects Earth's gravity. From season to season, the amount of water in the...

Baby born with exposed heart.(Health)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2004... BRISBANE, Australia -- Seven weeks before Peta Steedman was due to give birth, a routine sound scan revealed that something was wrong with the fetus growing in her womb. The fetus's heart was sticking out of its chest--a rare condition called...

Video exposes animal torture.(Life)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2004... MOORE FIELD, W.Va. -- In late July, KFC abruptly halted purchases and 11 employees were fired from a poultry processing plant. The actions took place after a video was released on the Internet. The video, which had been shot secretly inside the...

Chem students win Olympic medals.(Physical)(Chemistry)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2004... KIEL, Germany -- A month before the Summer Olympics began in Athens, four U.S. teens competed in another type of worldwide competition--the International Chemistry Olympiad. All four walked away with silver medals. The Americans were Emily...

Sci-triv game.
November 19, 2004... Physical. 1. True. Ytterby, Sweden. is called "the village of the four elements." An odd piece of black rock that looked like coal was found in a quarry there in 1787. During the next 100 years, chemical analyses of minerals that were first...

Who? Knew.(femal shark Cuddles: a new species of the marine ecology)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2004... COBURG, Germany -- Marine biologists and tourists have been flocking to the Sea Star aquarium to take a gander at Cuddles, its new star attraction. Cuddles is a female shark that belongs to a species never seen before. She doesn't swim, but...

Hip hop: Current Science writer Wells Wulsin got a jump on the new stilts on springs.(Physical)
November 19, 2004... Left... right... left... right... Slowly, timidly, I take my first steps, like a toddler learning to walk--staggering forward, jerking this way and that, teetering on the edge of disaster. I'm no toddler, of course. I'm a grown man...

Sick chicks: an outbreak of deadly bird flu in Asia has health officials worried that a human epidemic could be right around the corner.(Health/Life)
November 19, 2004... Why did the chicken cross the road? To avoid avian influenza perhaps? A recent outbreak of the disease in Asia has resulted in the deaths of millions of birds and has worried health officials around the world. Avian influenza, or bird flu,...

Sight unseen: what lies between the sun and the planet Mercury?(Earth)
November 19, 2004... Decked out in a blue flight suit, Alan Stern straps himself into the rear ejection seat of an F-18 fighter plane. As the sun sets, he gives the thumbs-up to the pilot. The F-18 thunders down the runway and hurtles to an altitude of 15...

Teen T. rex pigged out.(Life)(Tyrannosaurus)
November 19, 2004... TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Some things never change. Even 65 million years ago, teenagers are everything in sight. A new study has found that the typical teen Tyrannosaurus rex went on a four-year pig-out. Gregory Erickson, a professor of biology...

'Good carbs' trim fat.(Health)
November 19, 2004... BOSTON -- Are you befuddled by all the conflicting dietary advice that's available nowadays--the Eat Smart diet, the South Beach diet, the Best Chance diet, the Krispy Kreme diet? Don't despair. A new study adds to the growing scientific...

Ask professor Ossolotch.(Discoveries)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2004... Are Olympic gymnasts Paul and Morgan Hamm identical twins? Janice Carter Philadelphia, Pa. Dear Janice, They certainly look identical, but their parents say Paul and Morgan are fraternal. Identical, or monozygotic, twins...

Insight.(Discoveries)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2004... Hurricane season was a lollapalooza this year, with one whopper after another walloping the United States. The storms did not surprise most scientists who study hurricanes. The Atlantic Ocean experiences periodic surges of hurricane activity....

SUV safety gap is worst ever.(Physical)(Sport utility vehicles)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2004... WASHINGTON, D.C -- Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are more popular than ever in the United States. But their safety record is worse than ever compared to that of passenger cars. Last year, people in SUVs were 11 percent more likely to die in a...

Man grows new jaw in his back.(Health)
November 19, 2004... KIEL, Germany -- A 56-year-old German man chomped down on a bratwurst sandwich late in August. That might not seem like a news event in the land of sausage and beer, but the man hadn't eaten solid food in nine years. His mandible (lower jaw)...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)(Illustration)
November 19, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
November 19, 2004... What comes next in this sequence? 1 2 3 4 5 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bend Your Mind an indigo 6 and a violet 7; the seven colors are the colors of the rainbow

What iz it?(Optricks)(Illustration)
November 19, 2004... These might look chalk marks on a blackboard map of the southern United States. They are really long streams of hot gas and water vapor on a satellite photo map. What is the name for the streams and what put them into the sky? ...